Fox's Legend
by Takeno no Hikari
Summary: Naruto begs Itachi to take him with him on the night of the Uchiha massacre, Itachi in need of a partner and Naruto just needing an exit from Konoha, when they run into Akatsuki will they join up or be forced to run? Eventual NaruAnko Chapter 1 is up
1. Prolouge:Leaving Memories Behind

A/N: I really need to finish _one _of my current projects don't I? Oh well, here's the (extremely short) prologue/first chapter of my newest venture.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any concepts or characters that derive from it.

Fox's Legend

Leaving Memories Behind

"Please! Take me with you!" the blonde child begged to a blood splattered teen as tears ran down his face.

"Hm, just don't complain when I don't go easy on you, I don't intend to have someone weak near me," the raven haired ex-ANBU muttered as he turned toward the forest that surrounded the place that had never truly been a home to either of them.

The blonde child bowed his head, "Thank you ANBU-san, my name is Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto beamed at the only person who had ever even spoke to him.

"Uchiha Itachi," was the teen's only response as he began walking toward the forest, flinging Naruto on his back as he did so and finally leaped off into the night, leaving Konoha and bad memories behind.

_**2 years later, Cirrus town outside of Kumogakure**_

"So why is it we're doing this hit again Itachi-san, especially when we aren't even being paid well?" Naruto asked his mentor and, at least he thought so, friend.

"Because Naruto, we are, to put it simply, broke and have to take any money we can and any job we can," Itachi sighed. Though he'd never admit Naruto was right, the expenses for this mission were almost more than the reward.

"If you say so Itachi," Naruto conceded, "it's your fault anyway, damn pocky addiction," he finished under his breath. "So where is this guy anyway?"

"In the market, so the plan his to wait until he is back on the path to his home and then kill him."

"That easy eh? I can almost see why we aren't getting paid very much."

Itachi shook his head and then went back to looking at the path that their target was supposed to use to get home.

Two hours passed and there was still no sign of the target anywhere. He wasn't in the market anymore and he wasn't on the path home.

"Uh Itachi," Naruto said into his headset, "we might have a problem, some guy in a black and red cloak just kidnapped our target."

"_Black and red cloaks?" _Itachi voice crackled over the headset, _"Shit, Naruto get out of there and meet me back at the clearing."_

"So Itachi, why did you freak out like that?" the blonde asked his raven haired partner.

"I think he's a part of an organization called Akatsuki, they are comprised of a bunch of S-rank missing-nin, it should also be noted that I only know about this because I was graciously _invited _to join," Itachi informed the ten year old.

Naruto however wasn't fazed, "Eh I could have taken him on no problem, it was just some really pale guy with a weird ass tongue anyway."

"Naruto, I thought I gave you a Bingo Book(), that was probably Orochimaru of the legendary Sannin, so you definitely couldn't take him on," the Uchiha sighed, "besides depending on whether or not I join it might be a good idea to leave him alive."

"Well the real question here is why is an infamous nuke-nin here and messing up our mission, one that should probably mean absolutely nothing to him?" Naruto asked thoroughly confused by the odd occurrence, "Especially when it just happens that they asked you to join up?"

"Obviously he knows I'm here, he expects to be able to either scare me off or recruit me personally in order to gain an upper hand over the rest of Akatsuki," the genius Uchiha informed the blonde, "in fact it seems as though he has found our little hiding place."

"I know you're here Uchiha Itachi, why don't you come out and play?" the snake Sannin hissed, entering the clearing, "oh and what's this? It seems you have a friend, Leader-san told me you worked alone."

Itachi quickly gave Naruto the sign to stay where he was and then jumped out of the tree to face the ex-Sannin.

Itachi activated his sharingan and glared at the pale man, "What do you want Orochimaru?" He asked coldly.

"To put it simplay I was sent here to test your…ability," Orochimaru quickly flashed through handseals, "**Senei Jashuu**!**"** The snake muttered and at least twenty snakes launched forward at Itachi. Itachi leaped straight at the snakes, bypassing them and landing a punch to Orochimaru's jaw.

The snake Sannin was sent back a few feet and laded on his head. When he finally got up the Uchiha and Uzumaki were no where to be found, "Damn it! Leader is going to have my head!" he cursed loudly before biting his thumb and going through handseals, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" he yelled and slammed his palm on the ground, summoning a bright red snake, "Find him NOW!"

Meanwhile the two pursued nin were racing through the forest, "Itachi! Do you really think that was smart? I mean shouldn't have at least used Tsukiyomi on him?" Naruto asked worriedly.

"That was the best course of action, had I used Mangekyou then I would have almost definitely been blacklisted and having an entire organization of S-class nin after us would not be a good thing."

"And this is any better! Now they'll keep coming after us to recruit _you_, who knows what the hell they'll to with me!" Naruto cried out as the charged past trees in a blur, "after all they only _invited _to join their little club," the blond continued, hissing out the word invited as though it burned him.

"Oh come on Naruto, you don't think I'll actually join while that snake bastard is there, do you?" Itachi questioned his young partner

"I don't know what you'll do, especially after that last encounter with Konoha," The blonde was now glaring fully at the raven haired Uchiha.

_(Flashback no Jutsu)_

_1 year ago, settlement of Sabaku_

"Itachi, there are two Konoha ANBU headed straight toward us," Naruto informed his companion, "One of which has the chakra of Hatake Kakashi, your old captain, right Itachi-san?"

The fourteen year old nodded, "What of the other one, what can you tell me about him?"

"Well first of all, judging by the amount of chakra, I'd say the other is female, jounin level. Nothing we can't handle, Hatake however might pose a problem. But what I want to know is why Suna is even letting Konoha nin into their territory?"

"Hmm, since there are only two of them Suna probably doesn't even know about this, even with the current alliance things are shaky at best between Konoha and Suna," Itachi assessed, "we'll wait for them here, after all there's no reason to make them chase us all around the country," with that the two came to an abrupt halt and faced toward their hunters.

Naruto was right on both counts, the silver grey hair of Hatake Kakashi was easily recognizable, even hidden by a hood as it was, and the second member was most definitely female.

"Ah, well if it isn't little Anko-chan," Itachi chanted mockingly, "of course I wouldn't dare forget about you Kakashi-sempai."

The two jounin however were ignoring the older boy and looking at Naruto instead, "Itachi the Hokage is willing to cut a deal with you," Kakashi started, catching Naruto's and Itachi's attention, "If you hand over Naruto to us, we'll let you go free, clean slate and all. Hunter-nin will forget about you and about the Uchiha massacre."

Itachi was caught off guard to say the least, _'All they want is the gaki?'_ he thought, looking at Naruto from the corner of his eye. This silence continued for five minutes before Itachi finally opened his mouth to speak, "Well as tempting as that offer is, and honest it is tempting," he looked at Naruto apologetically, "I have to decline your offer. You see the brat and I are teammates now, and teammates don't abandon their comrades," Itachi grinned and activated the Mangekyou, "**Tsukiyomi."**

_(End Flashback no Jutsu)_

Naruto continued to glare at Itachi, he was positive that Itachi would have traded him for relieving himself of hunter-nins if he had believed Konoha would have held up on their end of the deal.

"Shit! Naruto watch out!" Itachi screamed and then their worlds went black.

"Good job Orochimaru-kun, I actually had my doubts about your ability against this one…"

End A/N: And there's the end to chapter one. Well it wasn't as long as I thought it would be but this cliffhanger seemed a nice place to end it. Also thank you all for your replies to my question,

P.S. Here's a poll that may or may not effect the story, Should Itachi and Naruto stay with Akatsuki, leave(escape), or should one of them stay and the other leave (if so specify which should stay and which should leave), or should they be captured by Konoha (or the same as the previous choice)?


	2. Please Read This, Extremely important

_**News Update IMPORTANT Regarding my departure from Naruto fanfiction and adoption of things I have written as well as my position in Harry Potter fanon:**_

Ummm...Right, it has been what, two years? Sorry about that. I just can't write Naruto Fanfiction anymore. The manga has killed the idea for me, not because it would particularly end up mattering in anything I wrote, just because whenever I try I can't stop thinking about how retarded the plot has become and how the characters have become. So, any and all of my Naruto stories are up for adoption. Just send me a PM or a review that says you want to adopt one, as well as a the name of what you consider to be your best story in order for me to look over it, and we'll talk about you taking whichever story over.

The other thing I would like to address is my story Maw of the Serpent in the HP category, this is going on indefinite hold (not that it wasn't already, it is just official now). This is for good and multiple reasons. After talking about the idea with several of my friends, I will be doing a complete rewrite of the books, not in an effort to recreate one of the various clichés (Slytherin!Harry in the case of MotS) but simply to correct everything that I personally found wrong with the books (and I realize that many people have done this) including Rowling's many inconsistencies. I may or may not post this depending on what kind of response I get from both my friends and those of you that read my stories, there will be a poll up tonight about whether or not I should post it. This is something I actually plan to finish (amazing, isn't it?) simply due to the amount of work I'm putting into it, unlike my other stories that I just sat down and started writing at impulse.

Sincerely (and somewhat regretfully),

Takeno no Hikari


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